Course No. 3507/3508

Contemporary

Japanese Culture

and Society

Gender

jendaa

ジェンダー

Lecture No. 13

Dump

Matsumoto

Top female

pro wrestler…

A Japanese lady…

… who poses a formidable challenge to

stereotyped views of femininity.

Women pro wrestlers are the subject of

an ongoing research project by Keiko

Aiba, right here in the Meiji Gakuin Dept

of International studies.

明学国際学部の合場敬子先生は女子プルレスの研究プロジェクト、進行中。

The “Otohime” or “Sound Princess” by Toto

I wonder if Dump uses one…

A Female Majority

Women make up 52% of the

population of Japan.

But they are a minority in some

walks of life:

In government, for instance…

In 2009, women accounted for just 2.0%

of executive positions in the national

bureaucracy (up 0.1% points from 2008)

and 3.6% of executive positions in the

private sector (up 0.6% points)

Cabinet Office (Naikakufu) report, Dec 11,

2009. (Executive: Subsection chief

[kacho] and above)

課長以上の女性管理職の割合： 2.0%（中央省庁）、3.6%（民間企業）

内閣府、09年12月11日

Let’s take a look at the

gender make-up of recent

cabinets…

Hashimoto cabinet 1997

Obuchi cabinet 1998

Mori cabinet 2000

Koizumi

cabinet 2001

2nd Koizumi cabinet 2003

Fukuda

cabinet

2008

Kan

cabinet

2010

2011 Noda cabinet

2013 Abe cabinet

These photos tell us how

rare it is for a woman to

get to the top in Japanese

politics.

Tomomi

Inada

稲田

朋美

TOMOMI INADA DUTIES

*Administrative Reform

* Civil Service Reform

* "Cool Japan" Strategy

"Challenge Again" Initiative

* Regulatory Reform

…. Reform policy, ‘cool’ stuff.

Masako Mori

森雅子

MASAKO MORI DUTIES

* Support for Women's Empowerment

and Child-Rearing

* Consumer Affairs and Food Safety

*Measures for Declining Birthrate

*Gender Equality

… her duties all cover traditional

“women’s issues”

Of course these duties are

important, but they are not really big

cabinet jobs like foreign minister,

finance minister, etc. They are both

fring cabinet positions.

Makiko Tanaka, education minister

in 2012 Noda cabinet

Too outspoken? Forced to resign as foreign

minister in 2002 over minor financial scandal

The Tanaka Dynasty 田中一家

Makiko Tanaka inherited her seat in the diet in Niigata prefecture from her father, the late Kakuei Tanaka 田中角栄, prime minister in the early 1980s, forced to resign over a major financial scandal (taking a huge bribe from Lockheed Corp.)

Many female politicians follow the dynastic pattern.

Tanaka’s

successor as

foreign

minister,

Yoriko

Kawaguchi,

with PM

Jun’ichiro

Koizumi

Not so many in parliament…

(Several recent women in cabinet

posts were not elected politicians

but ‘Madonna’ types chosen to

enhance the image of the cabinet.)

Percentage of women

in national parliaments

(lower house), as of

October 31, 2012. Left-

hand column shows

rank out of 150

countries surveyed.

1 Rwanda 56

3 Cuba 45

4 Sweden

8 South Africa 42

14 Netherlands 39

19 Mexico 37

20 Spain 36

24 Germany 33

38 France 27 Source: Inter-Parliamentary

Union

(http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/classif.htm)

47 Australia 25

60 UK 22

66 China 21

82 USA 17

88 South Korea 16

111 India 11

113 JAPAN10.6%

(18.6% in upper house)

123 Brazil 9

142 Egypt 2

166 Saudi Arabia 0

Little better in local politics

In 2003, out of the 10,246 seats

up for grabs in 387 local

assemblies, 1,236 women won

seats – a record 12%.

Since then, women have steadily

won 10-15% of seats in local

elections.

Similar in the business world

• Japan had 240,000 female

company presidents in September

2011 10.3%of a total of 2.5 million

registered companies, … mostly in

smaller companies.

• 女子社長は全体の10.3％（主に中小企業) (Tokyo Shoko Research)

http://www.j-cast.com/kaisha/2011/09/26108117.html

And even more so in BIG

business.

None of the top 100 companies

in Japan has a female president.

2011 Fortune magazine

global top 50 powerful

women

Only two Japanese

women, and they are

well down the list.

Junko Nakagawa #34

Executive managing director and Chief Financial

Officer, Nomura Holdings. New entry in 2011.

#36 in 2011: Yoshiko Shinohara

President of Tempstaff

“I think Japanese

society is still

dominated by men,

but these days,

this is changing

very rapidly…

In the top 50 for

many years

Yoshiko Shinohara… outspoken

Some women only complain, but complaining gets you nowhere. If women work hard and try hard, they will find the glass is not so thick. They need to break through the Glass Ceiling!

Shinohara started her temp agency

in a small rented apartment in 1973.

• In 2011 her company had sales of

$2.9 billion, and employs 5,000

people with six offices overseas

and 91 in Japan. At 77, Shinohara

was taking her company into new

markets, providing professional

staff in the medical, nursing, and

child-care fields.

Temping人材派遣業: gendered

work

• Shinohara’s company, Tempstaff, is itself controversial. Its workers are nearly all women, and the firm gets a large commission out of their wages .

• Helping women to get flexible employment?

• Or exploiting women for low-paid work with no job security?

… the debate continues.

2012 setback • In October 2012, Fortune magazine

published its latest annual list of the 50 most powerful women in the world. Nakagawa and Shinohara had both fallen off the list.

Monica Merz, president of

Toys R Us Japan, top gaijin

woman in Japan

• In 1940, the average Japanese woman was 42 when her youngest child started school, and died at the age of 50… just 8 years later.

In many other ways things have

got steadily better for women in

Japan

• By 1977, her youngest started school when she was only 34, and she could expect to live to the age of 78… another 44 years.

• The rise from 1940 was no less than 36 years…

• Nearly an extra year every year for 37 years!

• Female life expectancy was

just 53.96 years in 1947 but,

by 2010, had risen to 86.3

years, the highest in the

world.

• (For men it’s a mere 79.5…)

A study reported in the U.S.

magazine Science (Oeppen

and Vaupel 2002) claims the

average Japanese woman

born in 2060 could have a

life expectancy of 100.

So depending on your point of

view…

Women may appear to be a brutally

marginalized group – more

marginalized than any ethnic minority

(there are plenty of big Japanese

companies with foreign bosses these

days, like Carlos Ghosn, the Lebanese-

Brazilian boss of Nissan Motor…)

Or they may appear…

… to be living long and healthy lives of

leisure and relaxation, taking it easy at

home while their husbands are worked

to death at the office.

The role of women in society

is hotly disputed these days.

A trip down memory lane…

1980年代の思い出

… to the 1980s, when I first

arrived in Japan.

Still 3 steps behind?

• Polly Toynbee in the Guardian, c.

1980:

• “The Hell of Being a Japanese

Woman.”

• Photo: Woman walking 3 paces

behind husband. Ever seen it?

Some rather old-fashioned views…

"A man is not a man if he cannot rape a woman."

--- Shimon Miura, famous novelist, Chief of Japan's Cultural Agency, 1985

Things have improved

since then, but there are

still plenty of pressing

gender issues.

HIGHER EDUCATION

• In 2011, there were 2.6 million

students attending 780 universities

in Japan. 1.5 million were male and

1.1 million female, meaning that

women made up 43% of all

university students.

Women steadily narrowing

the gap

Students Men Women

1995 2,331,000 67% 33%

2011 2,569,000 57% 43%

• In 2011 out of 365,000 university

teachers, 275,000 were men and only

89,000 were women – 25% of the total.

Until Nara Women’s University

appointed a female principal a few

years ago, even women’s universities

invariably had male principals.

What about the teachers?

Japanese government statistics [http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/nenkan/]

Even at the faculty level,

more slowly

Univs Faculty Men Women

1995 565 250,132 86% 14%

2011 780 364,904 75% 25%

Note: These MEXT figures do not distinguish

full-time and part-time teachers. It is much

harder for a woman to get a full-time,

tenured position.

“2 years is plenty for girls”

Junior college (tanki daigaku 短期大学; tandai 短大) – a lower level of

education for women

Junior colleges: 150,000 students

enrolled in 2011, of whom 133,000

(89%) were women.

2-year junior colleges (tandai),

1995 and 2011

Clearly an institution in decline. But

again, men teaching girls is a common

pattern.

Students Male Female Faculty Male Female

1995 499,000 9% 91% 59,000 63% 37%

2011 150,000 11% 89% 30,000 50% 50%

Careers

• 40% of the Japanese Labor

force are women - 24 million of

them.

• But it’s still extremely hard for

them to get to the very top.

Percentage of women in Japanese industries

1980 1990 2000

ALL

INDUSTRIES

34% 38% 40%

Finance / Real

estate

46% 50% 48%

Manufacturing 34% 36% 33%

Construction 14% 16% 15%

The higher, the harder

RANK English % women

社長 Shachô President 5.6%

部長 Buchô Department

head

1.6%

課長 Kachô Section head 2.4%

係長

Kakarichô

Subsection

head

7.7%

Easier to be president…

Year 1996 1998 2000

No. of female

presidents 55,194 58,634 62,370

% female

presidents 5.30% 5.49% 5.53%

http://www.tdb.co.jp/watching/press/p000702.html

Female employment in Japan

We’ve started by looking at the elite

end of Japanese business… what

about the more general

employment pattern?

エリートだけではなく、一般的な女性雇用のパターンを検証しよう。

Post-war female employment

A growing female workforce

The “M” Pattern of Employment

Typically, a woman will work

for 4 or 5 years, then leave

to marry and have children,

returning to work in her 40's

from economic necessity

rather than ambition.

The M Curve

Smaller pay packets…

Full-time female workers receive about

60% of their male counterparts' pay,

part-time females about 40% and those

working at home 20% - the largest gap

in the developed world.

Women’s wages and men’s wages

(Companies with 30+ employees)…

25 years with no improvement.

Year MEN WOMEN W/M %

1975 304,000 114,000 37.5%

1980 309,000 166,000 53.7%

1985 378,000 196,000 51.9%

1990 450,000 223,000 49.6%

1995 496,000 253,000 51.0%

1998 504,000 257,000 51.0%

2000 494,000 242,000 49.0%

Management & Coordination Agency (Sômuchô)

Statistics Bureau

Male/female wage gap

Age range Av male wage

(¥000)

Av female

wage (¥000)

Differential

(Men = 100)

20-24 197 178 90

25-29 239 203 85

30-34 289 233 81

35-39 344 267 78

40-44 405 311 77

45-49 460 335 73

50-54 536 385 72

High school graduates 1997, Min of Labor stats

Dubious statistics

統計は必ずしも頼りにならない

This is an area where the stats can be

very treacherous. Just look at the

difference between those two sets of

figures, from two different branches of

government.

There are mountains of stats on

economy and labor issues in Japan …

but they must be handled with care!

Lengthy lobbying by women’s

groups has won concessions

on maternity leave:

Overview of Maternity, Childcare and Family

Leave in Japan, since 2001

Type of

leave/benefit

Duration of leave Level of payment

Maternity

Leave

(Shussan

kyûka)

14 weeks (6 weeks for

prenatal & 8 weeks

postnatal leave).

Multiple births:

extra 8 weeks.

60% of the basic

wage

Childcare

Leave (Ikuji

Kyûka) for

both parents

Until child reaches

one year of age

40% of the basic

wage (30% during

the leave and 10%

upon return to

work)

Overview of Maternity, Childcare

and Family Leave in Japan, 2001

Type of leave/benefit Duration of

leave

Level of

payment/benefit

Family Leave

(Kazoku Kaigo

Kyûka); both parents

3 months unpaid

Childbirth and

Childcare Lump Sum

Grant (Shussan ikuji

ichijikin)

after

childbirth

to assist

with

medical

costs

300,000 yen for

each child

Source: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare

“Full-time part-timers”

Women often have to spend more time at

home (children, housework etc.) and

they cannot afford the all-day

commitment of full-time work… others

are employed on part-time contracts

though they actually work full-time

hours. They are called ‘full-time part-

timers’.

But does it

matter what

they’re called…?

Yes it does.

1. Full-timers get bonuses of up to 6

months salary… part-timers usually

get no bonus, or a very small one.

2. Full-timers get pensions, health

insurance, housing allowances, etc.,

etc. … part-times usually do not.

3. It is much easier for the company to

fire part-timers than full-timers.

Even if the ‘part-timers’ are actually doing just as much work as the ‘full-timers’…

… and the part-timers are

mostly women and the full-

timers are mostly men…

… the companies will stoutly

insist that sexism has nothing

to do with it.

One outcome of all these sexist

practices is a gendered division

of labor in companies:

“Salarymen” vs. “OL”

The “OL”: A Case Study in Sexism

“OL” – stands for “office lady”.

In the folklore of modern

corporate Japan, she stands

alongside her more celebrated

male counterpart:

“SALARYMAN”

From Salaryman in Japan, published by

Japan Travel Bureau in 1986 (near the

peak of the Bubble Economy). Page 10.

This classic

guide to

salaryman

life is still

on sale

today!

“OL”

From Salaryman in Japan. Page 13.

They are expected to behave differently…

The Duties of

an OL

Photocopying…

Serving tea… with a smile…

• Answering the telephone…

• Sitting at the reception

desk…

• Typing up letters…

And, err, that’s about it…

… but OLs are also supposed /

imagined / encouraged / expected /

assumed…

to play various other roles not in

their official duties…

Frequently

characterized

as obsessive

gossips…

Keenly aware of status distinctions

Always

working

strictly in

that

secondary,

support

role…

Doing the cheerleading at the company

sports day for instance…

Another side to OL life…

The same sexist workplace

attitudes that put them in

subordinate roles also has some

economic advantages in a

wealthy country like Japan…

They wear leading fashion brands, and

dine on high quality French cuisine…

“They enjoy golf, tennis and other sports

which cost big money to play in Japan.”

“They are more than willing to use every day

of paid vacation time to take off on trips.”

“Male employees always pay for meals, further

swelling OL bank accounts”

A highly gendered workplace, which

has its pluses and minuses for both

genders?

OL can

sometimes be

useful for

explaining to

new recruits

how to

maintain

smooth

relations

within the

company…

… and sometimes relations go

so smoothly that one thing

leads to another…

culminating in what is

supposed to be every OL’s

dream:

Shanai kekkon – “company marriage”

“Tamanokoshi”… lit., “getting on the palanquin”

-- marrying the son of a top executive

Koshikake… lit. “a place to sit down for a

moment” – a job as a step toward marriage

The rules of marriage…

Once a man is married, it is traditional for

him to hand over his pay-packet to his

wife (or nowadays, she will hold the

bank card giving access to the account

where the wages are paid in).

She will then give him pocket money (e.g.

¥1,000 a day) for his basic living

expenses.

奥さんは家庭経済管理の決定権を握る。

So one counter-argument

…to Japan’s image of a highly sexist society says that the gender balance of power is very different inside the household to what you see outside it. A wife is called okusan 「奥さん」, ‘the one inside’, which hints at quasi-Islamic notions of women being hidden away from public eye, but she is also called okamisan 女将さん, meaning ‘god’, ‘the one above’ or ‘woman general.’

Questioning western assumptions

She has economic power over him, a very real aspect of gender relations that you may not notice at first glance.

(the same argument is made about Indian and Pakistani wives in the U.K.)

Kyosaika 恐妻家

If the husband’s personality is

weak, the household balance of

power may tilt so far against

him that he becomes a

‘kyosaika’ or hen-pecked

husband, literally a man who is

afraid of his wife.

Aisai Bento 愛妻弁当

When things are going better, she will express her love of her husband by making him a very tasty and prettily-designed lunch, that his co-workers can envy when they see him open it. It’s called an aisai bento, lit. “loving wife lunchbox.”

Sengyo Shufu 専業主婦

Women who follow the

traditional pattern, giving up

work to concentrate on raising

a family, are called ‘sengyo

shufu’ meaning ‘specialist

housewives’ or ‘homemakers.’

What is life like for them?

Once

married

she can

still give

him advice,

just like in

the days

when they

were

workers

together…

Still goes

to sports

day, but

now as a

spectator

and

child

minder

The life of a

salaryman’s

wife

Bored all day with nothing to do…

“She will work at many approaches to break the monotony.”

Devoting herself to childcare…

Getting bored?

… or getting the best out of

life?

What is the alternative?

“House husbands” (ハウスハズバンド）are not as rare as they used to be…

… but even

today, it’s

usually the wife

who gets stuck

with the chores,

child-rearing,

representing the

family in the

community etc…

even if she has

got a full-time

job as well.

Yuko Ogasawara,

U of California

Press, 1998

.. Borrows James

C. Scott’s

Concept of

‘weapons of the

weak’ to show

how OLs subvert

gender power

structures.

Ogasawara p. 96

“Women can laugh at men making

desperate attempts to please their

superiors because OLs do not usually

have to do the same to support

themselves and their families. Only

they can afford to observe calmly and

coolheadedly men’s funny, pathetic,

and sometimes ugly struggle for

promotion.”

Problems with the ‘OL’ image

• 1. Ignores women in blue-collar

occupations – cf Glenda Roberts,

Staying on the Line: Blue-Collar

Women in Contemporary Japan.

(Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1994)

Many women are working full-time

on the production line, even after

they marry and have children.

Roberts, p. 176

• “The increasing numbers of

women like those at Azumi,

determined to “stay on the line” for

as long as possible, may gradually

redraw the M-curve and make the

Japanese business environment

more amenable to women

workers.”

Problems with the ‘OL’ Image

2. Demeans women – not able

enough to do responsible work –

but also envies them for their

supposedly affluent lifestyle.

Recently, that tone of envy and spite

has got stronger, as men condemn

‘Parasite singles’

“Parasite Singles”

These, typically, are women who

don't fancy the prospect of giving

up independence and a career to

marry a salaryman and elect to

stay with their parents where they

pay cheap board, if any, have few

household chores and get to

spend all their money.

Strong value judgments…

Consumer spending is supposed

to be good for Japan’s deflating

economy, yet ironically,

‘spendthrift’ women are still

blamed for irresponsibility.

"Parasite singles are a phenomenon

peculiar to Japan. In the US people

think it is shameful to depend on

their parents and to be unable to

attract the opposite sex."

Tokyo Gakugei University professor

Yamada Masahiro.

A publishing industry… • Parasaito Shinguru (Parasite Singles), by

Sarada Tamako(1998)

• Parasaito Shinguru no Jidai (The Era of Parasite Singles), by Yamada Masahiro (1999)

• Chichi to Musume no Parasaito Shinguru (Father-Daughter Parasite Singles), by Miura Shimon and Sarada Tamako (2001)

• Nonpara: Parasaito Shinai Onnatachi no ‘Hontō’ (Nonpara: The ‘Truth’ of Women Who Do Not Parasitize), by Yamamoto Kiyo (2001)

3. Soaked in sexist assumptions

E.g. Men ‘talk business’, women merely

‘chat.’

Cf Karen Shire, “Gendered Organization

and Workplace Organization in

Japanese Customer Services” (Social

Science Japan Journal, 2000)

Shire in SSJJ 2000

In worker evaluation forms, Shire found

that male workers would be positively

evaluated for ‘good self-expression’

while women would be marked down

for “being too chatty.”

Men: eloquent yuben 雄弁

Women: chatty oshaberi おしゃべり

Is the conversation really so different?

A vicious circle? Women at work are treated as

irresponsible children…

… they know they have very little

chance of promotion to a serious

job…

… so they feel alienated from the

company.

A vicious circle?

They respond in various ways:

(1)Mock the seriousness of the

salarymen with their slogans,

corporate rituals etc… Don’t take

their own work seriously.

(2) Get very frustrated if they do

have ambitions to succeed.

A vicious circle?

They quit the firm to get married, go traveling, transfer to a foreign owned (gaishi) company, etc.

Alas, most of these strategies CONFIRM the prejudices of male managers that women are not suited to responsible positions… and the circle continues.

Anti-sexist legislation

• The Employment Equal

Opportunity Law (EEOL) of 1985.

• No penalties established for those

who break it…

• Corporate response – ippan-shoku

and sogo-shoku system

… just another excuse for

sexism?

Women want out…

A growing number of women reject the

role of low-grade supplementary labor

followed by marriage.

Average age at first marriage is rising

fast – used to be about 21, now about

28… (related to ‘parasite single’

phenomenon)

No longer afraid…

… of becoming ‘Christmas

Cakes.’

(unwanted after the 25th… year of

one’s life.)

• More women going abroad or

marrying foreigners…

Cf “Yellow Cab”

phenomenon…

Japanese girls

who travel to

foreign

countries in

search of love,

adventure, and

sex.

家田荘子（著） 『イエローキャブ』 １９９１年

Yellow Cab

By Shoko Ieda

(1991)

Reportage on

Japanese women

living in New York

Karen Kelsky:

Women on the

Verge:

Japanese

Women,

Western

Dreams

(Duke UP,

2001)

Kelsky (138) on Yellow Cabs in Waikiki

The women I knew insisted that they pursued brief encounters with gaijin men, black or white, because they were frustrated with Japanese men and experimenting with possible alternatives…, gaijin men were desired not primarily for their amatory prowess (or penis size), but for their yasashisa… kindness, gentleness or chivalrousness.

Karen Ma: The Modern Madame

Butterfly: Fantasy and Reality in

Japanese Cross-Cultural

Relationships. Tuttle, 1996

Some Japanese women have a

“Western chivalry fantasy”…

applied “indiscriminately to

every gaijin man they meet”

(1996: 92).

Farewell to Nippon:

Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in

Australia

By Machiko Sato (2001) depicts the

lives of Japanese women who have

migrated to Australia to escape

from Japanese society… and in

some cases, from Japanese men.

Men without Women As women increasingly delay marriage,

avoid marriage, or seek non-Japanese marriage partners, we naturally see a growing number of men who cannot find a woman to get married to.

The problem is especially acute in the country. Even if they don’t go abroad, many women abandon the country to seek better work opportunities and more fun in the big cities.

Not always an option for men

Men, especially first sons, are expected to

maintain the family bloodline and business.

In the country that may mean inheriting the

farmhouse or fishing boat and staying

behind when sisters and younger brothers

depart from the city.

The oldest son is supposed to be the ‘daikoku

bashira’ – the central pillar supporting the

family.

The bullied bride 嫁いじめ

• Traditionally, a woman who marries a first son moves into his parental household and can expect to be bossed about by her mother-in-law 義理母. (Mothers-in-law are negatively viewed all over the world.

• She will also be expected to look after his parents when they become old and infirm…

Another good reason to stay well away.

Import brides 輸入新婦

Hence desperate attempts in the last

decade by rural communities to

import brides from neighboring

countries, especially the

Philippines and Thailand.

Mass omiai お見合い in Manila and

Bangkok…

… successes and failures.

“Men are the problem”

Recently, gender studies is giving more attention to men.

E.g. James Roberson and Nobue Suzuki eds. Japanese Men and Masculinities: Dislocating the Salaryman Doxa (2003)

Danseiron 男性論 西川祐子＆荻野美穂（編）

人文書院1999年

WHEN PILLARS EVAPORATE STRUCTURING MASCULINITY ON

THE JAPANESE MARGINS

• One of the enduring symbols of masculinity in Japan is the daikoku-bashira: the central pillar supporting the roof of a traditional Japanese farmhouse. The word is also used to describe the supporter of the household, typically the father; and the eldest son once the father is too old to maintain the illusion of permanence.

It is an image of strength and

stasis: but also implies a heavy

burden on the shoulders of a man.

The men I study are day labourers, who look for casual work in urban labour markets called yoseba. Most of them have rural backgrounds, and are old enough to have been brought up in an environment where the ideology of the daikoku-bashira was still very strong. Yet they tend to be estranged from their families, even the substantial minority who are eldest sons and would therefore be expected to inherit the household.

• Many of these men lead transient lives, alternating spells at various yoseba around the country with periods working at hanba, work camps at construction sites away from the big cities. Many are drinkers and gamblers. If they get into trouble, or simply tire of their present situation, they may suddenly leave town – a process described as ‘evaporating’ (jôhatsu suru).

• From the stasis of the daikoku-bashira to the transience of the evaporating day labourer, Japanese men experience a wide range of responses to issues of mobility, freedom and responsibility.

Also check out Masako Ishii-

Kuntz’ study of Japanese

fatherhood in the same

collection.

… and the divorce rate rises

steadily.

(Especially among older couples and

long-married couples.)

Japan’s slowly rising divorce rate

Year

No. of

divorces

Per 1,000

pop

Length of

marriage

With

child(ren)

Child(ren)

with wife

1950 83,689 1.01

1960 69,410 0.74

1970 95,937 0.93 6.8 years 59.1% 51.0%

1980 141,689 1.22 8.6 years 67.6% 67.2%

1990 157,608 1.28 9.6 years 62.7% 71.4%

1994 195,106 1.57 10.0 years 61.3% 76.2%

1998 243,183 1.94

2000 264,246 2.10

Source: Asahi Shinbun Japan Almanac; Sômuchô Statistics Bureau

Source:

Ministry of

Health,

Labor and

Welfare

(Japanese are still less likely to

get divorced than Americans.

Nearly half of all marriages in

the United States end in

divorce, compared to about a

third in Japan.)

• Between 1973 and 1997, the number of

divorces per year among couples

married for more than 30 years jumped

more than eightfold - from 820 to 6,709,

the Health Ministry says. The overall

number of divorces for the same period

doubled from 111,877 to 225,635.

Divorce rate for Japan's elderly couples

is growing

By JOJI SAKURAI (Associated Press)

• “Elderly couples are reaching retirement

age without ever once having had a real

conversation,” says Nobuo Kurokawa, a

doctor who specializes in marriage-

related stress. "Spending time together

becomes a huge burden."

• Retirement forces many of Japan's

elderly couples into the unknown

territory of filling the hours of a day in

one another's company. Kurokawa has

even coined a term for it: Husband-at-

home-stress syndrome. "The wives

start developing nervous disorders and

exhibiting all sorts of psychosomatic

physical symptoms," he said. "Many

even think of suicide."

Key words 1: Sodai Gomi

• “Sodai gomi” (large,

cumbersome garbage, like that

old sofa with the broken

springs) -- a nickname given to

retired salarymen who are no

use anymore.

Key words 2: Nureochiba

“Nureochiba” Dead wet leaves

that stick to the leg - as the

retired husband, deprived of

work and work functions,

hangs about sticking to the

wife.

Keyword 3:

Make-inu

負け犬

Lit ‘Losing

Dog’

Junko Sakai’s best-

seller of 2003, The

Distant Howling of

Losing Dogs

Politically incorrect Junko Sakai

“No matter how beautiful

and good at her job she

may be, a woman past

thirty who’s still

unmarried and has no

children is a ‘losing dog.’

「どんなに美人で仕事ができても、30代以上・未婚・子ナシは「女の負け犬」なのです。」

‘Losing Dog’ publishing boom

Eight more ‘make-inu’

books since the

original best seller.

Ryosai Kenbo 良妻賢母

“A good wife and a wise

mother.”

Traditional definition of a

socially approved woman.

Sakai’s argument is that women

have taken a wrong path in

turning away from that model.